Page 8 of Dead Man's Alibi

It ate him up, and he didn’t know how to fix it.Because God knew he couldn’t convince her not to worry after she’d spent nearly fifteen years trying to get herinnocentfather out of jail, only to have it all end even worse than it needed to.

But this wasn’t the same.It just couldn’t be.Yes, he’d had a somewhat public fight with Jules that might look bad, but since he literally hadn’t seen her for days before the date of the murder, there could be no physical evidence linking him to the crime.

And yeah, Hayes might hate him, but it wasn’t something founded in anything but… well, Nate could only assume jealousy.Just like when Hayes had pulled him over last month, this was just a dick move meant to flaunt some power, but it wasn’t going to amount to anything but frustration.

The bell on the door tinkled and Cal strode in, making a beeline right for Nate.

“I thought you said it’d take an hour or so.”

“It didn’t.”Cal shrugged, grabbed a chair in the corner, and dragged it over to Nate’s desk.“Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Nate shoved the stack of papers across the desk to Cal.“I printed out the email chain.My expense reports, which prove where I was and what days I worked on her case.We write little reports after every meeting—just a few sentences—so I have all of those, including the one I wrote after ouraltercationat the hotel in Bozeman.Can you think of anything else he’d need?”

“I want to listen to any phone messages, read any texts, but we’re not going to hand those over to Hayes just yet.If I think of anything else, we’ll deal with it as it comes up.”

Nate opened his mouth to argue with Cal, but Cal just kept right on talking.

“Let’s head over to the police station with this before Hayes gets it in his head to get a subpoena or search warrant.It’ll look better to offer this up ourselves, and it might distract him enough for the real murderer to be caught before we have to supply anything else.”

Nate rubbed his palm over his jaw, feeling more than conflicted.“I went through my calendar to see what I was doing the day he asked for my alibi.”Nate looked over at Sam, who had indeed looked up.Because she’d been listening, even if she’d acted like she wasn’t.

And she knew as well as he did that there was no alibi to be had.“Sam got stuck in Bozeman overnight.I was home alone.”

Cal muttered something under his breath.“Look, it won’t come to that.We’ll avoid alibi talk for the time being.”

“He’s going to ask.”

“And you’re not going to say anything,” Cal said, sounding so sure and in control.

Nate had no doubt Cal was a good lawyer.He’d helped with Dad’s case, even in the middle of his own personal unraveling, with quick thinking and certainty.But that was the thing.

Natewasn’tDad.He wasn’t a criminal or a murderer.Sure, he felt some guilt over how little he’d helped Jules, but Cal hadn’t been wrong this morning.The woman had made it difficult to help her.Nate still felt like there should have been something he could have done, but that didn’t mean he was guilty of anything that he should need a lawyer.

So Cal’s entire involvement in this grated.And Nate couldn’t even take it out on Cal, because Hayes and maybe a dead woman were the ones to blame for this.

“Listen,” Cal said in thatI’m the oldest and bestvoice Nate remembered from growing up.“We’re going to provide him with all the necessary information on your interactions with Jules Hyatt.When he comes to us with some concrete proof that makes supplying an alibi necessary—which we all know he won’t ever be able to scrounge up—we’ll give him that alibi.”

“The one I can’t verify?”

“After the station, you’ll do what you can to see if there’s some way to verify you were home.Landline records.A neighbor who saw you.Your car on someone’s doorbell camera.Whatever.But we’re going to go deal with this first.”

“I’ll work on that now.”

Nate looked at Sam as she spoke, and so did Cal.She was already standing and grabbing her purse.

“Sam—”

“You guys go.I’ll work on proving the alibi.”

Nate got up, crossed to her, though she didn’t look at him.She’d barely looked at him since last night.

“Sam—”

“Go.See Hayes.Give him all that.”She looked up at him then, all that fear and worry in her gaze, even if she was scowling at him.“And listen to your brother.”

“That’s the first time you’ve given me that advice.Hope it’s the last.”

She didn’t so much as crack a smile, but he sensed enough of a softening to lean down and press his mouth to hers.“I love you.”